Ok so I’m a hack. I copied the title of this post directly from This American Life #370. Yesterday morning I got a tweet from a friend of mine saying he’d just listened to an episode of This American Life that essentially described everyone he works with. Since I work with this guy I was eager to check it out. The title of This American Life #370 is pretty self explanatory, in this edition they have several stories of how a small group of people or a single person can ruin things for everyone else. I thought about how it applies to my life, both at work and in the outside world.
At my job on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays you can dress casually. By casual I mean jeans, sweatshirt. You know, casual. Unfortunately, there was a group of people in my office that on weekends their casual dress was typically sweatpants, an over sized t-shirt, and flip flops. Think of what most people wear to sleep. This is what some of my coworkers where to work on casual days. That’s right, pajamas. Some of them would even walk around with just their socks on. No shoes. You’re thinking, what the fuck. Yeah it was that bad. Well, early one Saturday morning the president of the company brought a tour group of college students through the office. Weeks later casual dress was outlined very specifically in the employee handbook. Collared shirts are now required on casual days. Now because some idiot employees think pajamas are appropriate for casual day I can’t wear jeans and a sweater. I’ve gotta have a collared shirt under that sweater.
Another policy change at my job has to do with vacation and sick time. It’s complicated but with the new changes they make it very difficult to take paid sick time. You’ve pretty much gotta have a note from the surgeon general to take off sick. To use FMLA is nearly impossible to do. Why? Because a huge group of the workforce would use FMLA for a common cold. FMLA protects you from discipline action by your employer so employees figured why call in sick when you can call in FMLA without recourse. I’ve never used FMLA but if I ever do it’s going to be a pain in my arse because of people who abuse the system.
Here’s what’s upsetting. There’s nothing you can do about these people, they’re always going to ruin things for everyone else. At work, outside work there’s always going to be a minority that ruins things for the majority. If I have two pints of Guinness and drive home I could probably get arrested because someone before me drank two pints of whiskey, killed a bus load of kids and now the legal limit for blood alcohol is .08. Bullshit. Just because someone’s kid died I can’t enjoy a couple beers then drive home? WTF. Just because some hump thought it wise to stick bombs in his shoes I’ve gotta take off my shoes every flippin time I go to the airport. Because someone got cancer from second hand smoke, I can’t smoke a cigarette in a bar. Because some glaciers melted and a few polar bears have died, I can’t use aerosol deodorant. It’ll never end. There’s always going to be some douche out there that’s going to ruin something for you. Sometimes the douche that ruins it for you is a polar bear or a glacier.
